


Dance with Magick

by Sinistretoile



Category: Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Norse Religion & Lore
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angry Sex, Blood Magic, Blow Jobs, Claiming, Cocaine, Comfort, Confrontations, Dark Magic, Drug Use, Drugged Sex, Drugs, F/M, Kidnapping, Minor Character Death, Nightmares, Non-Consensual Voyeurism, Office Sex, Overdosing, Revelations, Rituals, Self-Harm, Slapping, Snakes, Voyeurism, nightclubs, the 70s
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2017-03-28
Packaged: 2018-09-11 14:44:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 16,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8988577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sinistretoile/pseuds/Sinistretoile
Summary: Loki is hiding in NYC after being banished from Asgard, again. He's running the most popular nightclub in the city, and cocaine. Because he has plans. None of those include a string of murders nor caring for his assistant.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The root idea of this work was inspired by the man himself. http://collider.com/loki-movie-tom-hiddleston/

It was the height of the 70's, 1975 to be exact. A musical revolution. A sexual revolution. The Vietnam War is over. The nation had begun to heal. And party. Before there was Studio 54, there was Club Valhalla.  
Banished to Midgard, Loki had taken up a failing club and turned in it a veritable den of iniquity. Sex, drugs, booze. But Club Valhalla is just a front for Loki's more nefarious activities. A slight of hand to keep the Midgardian and Asgardian authorities from guessing Loki's true motives. Alas, there's always a loose thread.  
Some of Club Valhalla's clientele have turned up dead. Cause of death has varied. But all roads lead to Valhalla. And now, the NYPD is sniffing around. They'll bring S.H.I.E.L.D.'s attention. And then Thor will be breathing down his neck and beating down his door.

The curvaceous blond waited on the couch. Her long leg bounced to the music. She looked up from her drink as her host strolled in, tugging on his patent white jacket. “Sorry to have kept you waiting, Amanda. You know how things can get when you run a business.” His stride slowed when he saw exactly WHO was waiting for him.  
As she rose, setting the glass on the table, her smile twisted and she laughed. The sound made his nerves twitch pleasantly. "You're Leo Keyes? Oh, I should have known." They met in the middle of the room. Amora, the Enchantress, plucked the glass out of his hand as if he had offered it. She knocked back the swirling amber liquid.  
"And you're Amanda Moore. Owner of Spellbound Spa." He took his glass back before she drank it all.  
"Clever boy, Loki." He sipped the pleasantly warm liquid. "I need to talk."  
"I assumed that's why you'd come. But first-"  
"Why are you killing my customers?" They spoke in unison then frowned at each other.  
"This presents a problem."  
“Your customers?” His frown deepened. At first, he’d assumed it was the escorts that accompanied the prostitutes that frequented the club. They had a tendency to smash first and ask questions later. Not to mention simply rob said unsuspecting customers. “I assumed it was your mindless goons finally crossing that last line into murder.” He gave her a dark look.  
“They know better than that. All of them want to live to see tomorrow. If they did murder my clients, they would have to deal with me. Personally.” Loki was less than impressed. She gave herself far too much credit. "On the contrary, 'Leo', customers from the spa have been turning up dead. Much like your clientele." She sipped the drink then slithered over to his leather couch. The Enchantress artfully, yet enticingly, draped herself on it. Loki sighed. He'd never been able to resist her charms.  
"That changes things. You don't suppose something has gained knowledge of our true nature and is seeking to exploit it?" He sat at the opposite end of the couch. His impossibly long legs spread. The tight pants suited him and left pleasingly little to the imagination. Not that she needed to imagine much. They'd been lovers once before.  
"Could be, son of Asgard. What do you propose we do about it?"  
“Well that’s obvious enough. Kill the problem. Business returns to normal.”  
“I have a contact or two in the police department. I'll find out what is known thus far.”  
"It was good to see you, Loki." The Enchantress sat forward then ran her hand up his thigh. "Come by the spa and I'll give you a full day. On the house." He snatched her hand and held it tightly.  
"It was good to see you to, Amora. I'll find you when I've information but you need to keep me informed of what you find out. No holding out, Enchantress. We are both in hiding and stand to lose everything.”  
Amora snatched her hand back from him. “I know that.” She glared at him for a moment longer then stood and stormed from the room. Her long blonde hair swirled about her as an extension of her magic. Loki grinned despite his concern. This could be great fun.


	2. Chapter 2

Izzy had perched herself on the corner of her boss’s desk. Their nightly meetings consisted of club doings and flirting. Then depending on her boss’s mood, they’d fuck and she’d go about her evening. Not tonight. Tonight, Leo was tense and silent. He would often fix her with his brilliant green eyes until she squirmed uncomfortably.  
“Leo, are you sure everything is alright?” She knew better than to touch him when she wasn’t sure he wanted, but she reached for his knee anyway. She squeezed the thick muscle of his thigh then withdrew her hand.  
“I have things on my mind, Izzy. It’s not you that has put me cross.”  
“Is there anything I can do to help?”  
“At this juncture, no.” He rose from the chair, towering over her sitting form. She uncrossed her legs, expecting him to move between them. He did just that. He tipped her chin up and looked into her eyes. She’d been his first stroke of luck in Midgard. An attractive, intelligent college graduate with a degree in business management…and a coke addiction. He threaded his fingers through her corkscrew curls. “You’ve done something with your hair.”  
Izzy smiled. “I went to the salon today. Do you like it?”  
Loki touched more of her hair. It felt surprisingly soft for the all chemicals he could smell on it. His face remained neutral but he grabbed a quick, hard handful and tilted her head. “I do. I can’t wait to see them all bouncing when I fuck you.” Izzy shuddered, biting her bottom lip. His mouth hovered over hers but he didn’t kiss her.  
He drug his feet in a looping gait away from her, clasping his hands at the small of his back. Loki stood in front of the wall of glass that looked out over the dance floor. Humans bumped and grinded and writhed on the dance floor to catchy music that sometimes annoyed him. The flashing lights distorted their shapes and movements. What flowed gracefully one moment appeared jerky and painful the next.  
These murders were bad for business. Bad for him. Especially if the police connected them to the club and the club to Amora’s spa. He’d be on the radar and his work would be ruined. It was bad enough he fought his very own nature by leading a relatively normal life here on Earth. Did anyone aside from his trusted few know of his true nature? And who had Amora told of hers? He growled softly. It was someone who knew them. Perhaps he needed to broaden the spectrum beyond this world. But who knew of Amora's banishment? That was really the question. His was known far and wide. His location was another story.  
Izzy twirled her hair as she sat on the edge of the desk. Loki left his hands at the small of his back as he turned slowly to face his assistant. “Izzy, why are you here?” He needed to clear his mind and he knew the best way to do it. And it involved the little girl that looked at him with concern and fear.  
“Because you told me to be, sir.”  
“I mean at the club, child.” She frowned. She was here because she needed a job. She was good at it. She kept the club running smoothly for Leo. She knew his true nature. It frightened and thrilled her. He sat down in the oversized leather chair and spread his legs wide, making the tight pants even tighter. It distracted her momentarily. She licked her lips at the outline of his hard cock.  
“Because you needed good help. And I’m the best there is.” She grinned and he returned it. “I’m smart, clever, and hardworking. I’m good at what I do. You haven’t had any problems since you hired me. I keep my mouth shut when I need to and open when it need to."   
Loki's fingers walked up her thighs and under her skirt. "You aren't wearing knickers." He arched an eyebrow and looked up at her. "I'd like to give you a reward. For your hard work and loyalty." Her breath hitched as he pulled her forward.  
"Thank you, Mr. Keyes."  
"You don't even know what I'm giving you." He pulled her off the desk and into his lap. "You'll receive a pay raise and a promotion. Not only are you my assistant, I’m making you manager of the club. No longer ‘assistant’. Would you like that?”  
“Yes, Leo.” She bent to kiss his throat. He closed his eyes. One thing he loved about Midgard was the women. And their eagerness to please, especially Izzy. Even now, she was already sliding to her knees.  
"Go on, Izzy." He leaned back and tucked his hands behind his head. His eyes closed as she opened his pants and freed his cock from the tight pants. "Now, you will take the baggie from your pocket and do a line."  
"Sir?"  
"You like the Rose Red?" She nodded. He smirked. “You like my cock?”  
“You know I do, Leo.” His smirk became a grin. Izzy bit her bottom lip then smiled. She pulled the baggie from her tight pocket and poured a line down the length of his massive cock. His lips parted as he watched her. She sucked on her fingertip to wet it then dipped it into the baggie, coating it with the white dust. She rubbed it along her gums then pushed one of her nostrils closed.  
He watched the white powder disappear into her nose then his cock disappear between her eager lips. He gripped the back of her head as she bobbed. "No wonder you could pay your way through college. God!" He lifted his hips as she hollowed her cheeks and sucked on him then teased her tongue over the head of him. Her moans vibrated along his sensitive flesh. "That's it, pet. Just a little more." His mouth remained opened. He panted the closer she sucked and licked him. "Up, Izzy and over the desk." The cocaine took hold of her. The euphoria hit her as Loki moved up behind her. "Such a good girl, Izzy." He used his knees to open her thighs.  
"Up and over. Up and over." Her panting breath halted as he pushed his cock into her snug cunt, pulling her back on his length. His size should have hurt her when he bottomed out but that was a benefit of the cocaine. Pleasure danced along her nerves. His name dripped from her lips like honey. "Leo. Leo. Leo."  
"Mmmm. Izzy, you know my true name. Use it."  
Her voice was almost breathless when she said his name. "Loki." He shuddered then fucked her, hard and fast. Her keening moans drove him mad. She came in a dripping mess down her leg and he took that as unneeded permission to cum. Izzy lay panting on his desk when he pulled out. He tucked himself back into the snug pants and dropped into the chair, spreading his legs open once more.  
“I want you overseeing the shipment tomorrow. I have business.”  
“Yes, sir.” Izzy tugged her skirt down, wiggling back and forth. Loki reached forward and grabbed her ass. He’d tasted many women but this one seemed to be his favorite flavor. Loki kneaded her round ass cheek then slapped it hard.  
“And Izzy?”  
“Yes, sir?” She paused at the door, looking flushed and more delectable than he felt comfortable acknowledging. Her glossy, wet lips formed a natural pout.  
“Everything runs smoothly tomorrow and we can play for longer.” She bit her bottom, ineffectively hiding her excited grin. He grinned as she shut the door. Oh yes, she was his favorite flavor. He waited a moment before calling down to her office. “I want you back here after closing.”  
“Yes, Mr. Keyes.” Izzy knew the drill. He'd fuck her until he got bored. They'd take a break. He'd fuck someone else then he'd 'reward' her loyalty and hard work again. It helped that he supplied her habit. He’d be the death of her one day. She was sure of it.


	3. Chapter 3

Amora strolled along the sidewalk. Her snug dress, fur shrug and mesmerizing hair were eye catching to, well, everyone. Her butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth smirk told everyone that she knew it too. It was her natural glamour. She usually had to weave a casting to go unnoticed. Today, she wanted to be seen as she pushed open the door to Club Valhalla.  
Her heels sound impossibly loud over the polished floor. Loki looked down from his office. The imperceptible nod told her to come on up and she did just that. The security guard opened the office door for her, checking her out on the sly. But Amora saw.  
Loki gestured for the sumptuous chair on the other side of his desk before he sat down.” I trust you have something for me.”  
“I do but it’s not much.” She arranged herself on the chair so that he had no choice but to admire her. “There is a presence that has frequented your establishment and mine. It has left a tenuous but tangible signature.” Loki steepled his fingers in front of his face and said nothing. “Is there any pattern to your dead?”  
"None. They're seemingly ransom."  
“With the exception that they’ve just come from here.”  
He sighed and lowered his arms to the arms of the chair. "What of the victims from Spellbound? Any pattern there?”  
Amora tilted her head to the side. “Nothing recognizable. I haven’t looked into it too deeply.”  
“Well, you look into it and get back to me.” For some reason, Izzy sprang to his mind. He felt uncomfortable with the concern he felt for her well-being. “Have any of your employees been killed?”  
“None as of yet. Yours?”  
“No.”  
Amora raised an eyebrow. “You’re not concerned about these humans, are you?” His coldly handsome face remained neutral but she smirked. “No, not all of them…maybe one in particular?” Again, his face remained neutral.

Izzy chewed her bubblegum, rapidly counting the bottles on the shelf as she performed the weekly inventory. Her brain buzzed with the cocaine high. She hadn’t slept since the night before. After the line she did in Loki’s office, she’d kept the high going. She needed that extra boost of energy after the club closed. Leo had taken her back to his penthouse and they’d fucked all night. Then he’d made her eat and brought her to work.  
After shoving his tongue down her throat and promising her a repeat tonight, he’d left her to handle her regular duties plus her new duties, as well as the shipment. So she’d taken another bump and set to work.  
The last of the Rose Red was being loaded onto the ‘delivery’ truck. She looked up as the officer, on Leo’s payroll and protecting his employer’s interest, walked past the doorway in the back hall. The phone on the wall rang. Only two people called the storeroom, the bar and the boss. The bar was presently empty.  
She lifted the receiver to her ear. "Yes, Leo?"  
"Iz, I need you in my office." His dark tone shivered down her spine. She peeked out into the hall to make sure that the truck had left.  
“Of course, Mr. Keyes.” He hung up. Had she done something wrong? Shipment had gone off without a hitch. She left her clipboard and pen on the shelf she’d just finished counting then hurried up the back stairs.  
The staccato click of impossibly high heels drew her attention to the blonde stunner leaving his office. She had a flash of inadequacy and insecurity. The blonde seemed to sense her and turned. Her smile was unsettlingly beautiful and predatory at the same time. They stared at each other for a moment, one taking measure of the other. Izzy felt herself lacking compared to the woman. And Amora was surprised by Leo’s taste. He’d finally picked a decent one.  
The moment was over and Amora continued down the hall and disappeared around the corner and down the stairs. Izzy knocked on the office door then opened it. The air crackled with otherworldly energy. For a moment, she saw his true identity overlaid on the image he showed everyone. Knowing and knowing are two different things.  
Izzy swallowed. Wild, chaotic magic caressed her skin where she stood. She’d never seen Leo/Loki lose his composure like this before. He sat in his office chair, every bit the regal god he was. His brilliant eyes flashed with an otherworldly light as they fell upon her. She trembled as she closed the door behind and cautiously moved forward.  
“You wanted to see me, Loki?”  
Loki…there, smart girl used his true name. He felt confident in his decision to care for this one. And she knew fear. He could taste it on his tongue. And her heartbeat. They made a wine as sweet as ambrosia trickling across his taste buds. “Come, Izzy.” His true voice vibrated along her nerves, awakening in her every primitive desire humans possessed. To fight, to feed, to fuck, to survive, to worship.  
Loki couldn’t, or wouldn’t, put a finger on the emotions that sprang up when she dropped to her fours and crawled in fear and awe over the floor to kneel at his feet. She debased herself even further by bowing to touch her head to the floor right by his foot. The soft brush of her hair against his hand brought him back to himself.  
“Up, Izzy. Get up, now.” Her heart thundered in her chest, wondering again what she’d done wrong. The air continued to crackle with the energy even as it dissipated. His voice shook as he spoke. “How did the shipment go?”  
He watched her struggle to speak for a moment and regretted summoning her in this mood. She finally had to look away from him to regain enough of herself to speak and even then her voice shook worse than his. “It went fine, sir. Everything accounted for and on its way to distribution.”  
Her fear became bitter on his tongue. She flinched as he brushed his fingertips along her wrist. His handsome face fell into a frown. His eyes narrowed. He grabbed her wrist and jerked her into his lap. “Would you reject me now that you’ve seen what I truly am?” The whites of her eyes showed like a spooked rabbit. Her pulse went nearly tachycardic. “Izzy, answer me.” She went deathly white.  
Izzy felt sick. She didn’t feel right. Perhaps it was the combination of the coke plus seeing him. Loki realized something was wrong at the same moment she did. He commanded her to sleep. Her humanity was forced to answer. Again, he felt uncomfortable with the distress her condition caused in him. Had he grown to care for her despite the occasional reprieve from their affair?  
This posed a problem. She would become a target. But more importantly, a weakness. Should he begin to distance himself from her? Or would that in itself be an admission of his affection for her? Fuck. He stared down at her pale, clammy face. Sweat had beaded on her forehead. She looked so innocent and sweet when she slept. And he felt worse for corrupting her. So they rarely slept together.  
With a heavy sigh, he stood then carried her effortlessly to the couch. He lifted the phone and dialed a number. “Yes, I need you.” The person on the other line grumbled. “I’m aware of the hour. It’s not for myself.” More grumbling from the other end of the line. “You have 20 minutes. If she is harmed by your negligence and delay, you will know why I am feared.” He hung up without waiting for a reply.


	4. Chapter 4

There was no pain. But there was also no euphoria. There was nothing and numbness. It wasn’t dark and it wasn’t light. It was in-between. Like when you close your eyes but you aren’t asleep. And it was quiet. The absence of sound was so complete Izzy couldn’t even hear herself. But out of that silence came Leo’s command. No, Loki’s command.  
“Wake up, Izzy.” Her eyes snapped open in the dim office. She drew in a deep breath then began to cry. Loki frowned down at this little human he’d grown to care for. “Izzy, are you hurt?” She shook her head but covered her face. He ground his teeth in frustration and grabbed her arms. She cried out in pain and he let her go as if he’d burned himself on her flesh.  
Loki sat perched on the edge of the couch, staring down at this little girl. He was at a loss. The doctor had taken her vitals and pronounced her fine. He advised her to lay off the nose candy for a few days since she’d been on it for over 24 hours. When next he touched her, it was gentle, tender, caring.  
“Izzy, please tell me what is wrong.” His fingertips danced along her arm until he took her wrists and opened her arms. He felt the slight tremor in her body. Her heartbeat tripped in its unsteady and thready beat. “Tell me so I can make you better, my darling.”  
“I don’t know.” Her sobs quieted. “I don’t know.”  
He shushed. “It’s alright, Izzy.” He gathered her into his arm. She felt so frail, so fragile. He could break her and not even use half his strength. He allowed this moment of tenderness because she needed it. “The doctor has said you need to abstain from the Rose Red for a few days.”  
“I just want to sleep.”  
“Let me take you home.”  
“But you’ve the club to run. You can’t cart me off halfway across the city.”  
“I meant my home, Izzy.”  
“But-“ He laid a finger on her lips as she looked up at him. Her hollowed eyes shimmered. Again, he was reminded of her frailty. He needed to show more care when it came to her. He’d gotten so comfortable with her that he’d forgotten they were made differently, wired differently.  
“Hush.” His thumb caressed her cheek. “I have a soft spot for you, Izzy. And it wants to take care of you. Let me.” She didn’t say anything more. She snuggled against his hard, cool chest and fell asleep. His hands soothed her as they rubbed up and down her back.  
A copy of him picked up the phone. “Samson, bring the car around the back. Izzy and I are leaving early tonight. Yes, she’s fine. Thank you for your concern. We’ll be down in a moment.”

Amora, known to Midgard New York City as Amanda Moore, sat in her office watching the closed circuit television. It kept her girls and her clients honest. Everyone got what they paid for and no one got what they didn’t pay for.  
Thankfully, there was no sound on the monitors. She hated the sounds of humans during intercourse. She was aware they were similar to Asgardian sounds of pleasure since they were similarly made. But it grated on her nerves none the less. She didn’t understand how humans could watch pornography with sound.  
Something caught her eye in the camera in the lobby. A child sat in the lobby. Her ankles crossed, hands in her lap. She didn’t seem to be looking at anything nor staring off into space. As Amora watched the monitor, the little girl turned to the camera and smiled. Then she was gone. There one instant and gone the next.

The child watched the Asgardian carry his human to the black car. It tilted its head in wonder. The ‘god’ felt for the human. It cared. The human stunk of wild magic…none of it hers. It smelled of the Asgardian. This one was weaving a great work. The child could tell. It could see the lines interlocking around the club and reaching out like tentacles.  
The Asgardian looked in the child’s direction. These two were more perceptive than the child gave them credit. They’d both spotted it. But clearly it wasn’t a child. It was something else. Something other. The child watched. The child waited. The child would act when the time was right.

Loki carried Izzy down to the limo parked in the alley. Her color wasn’t returning. Her pulse remained thready. He should probably take her to the human hospital. But hospitals asked questions. Questions he didn’t know the answers to nor wanted to answer. Until her condition worsened, he would take care of her. She was his…in more ways than he felt comfortable acknowledging.  
He laid her across the backseat. As he stood to comfortably get into the limo as well, he looked up the alley. He noticed the presence there. It was bigger than it appeared to be. He was the king of illusions. He knew one we saw it. The child looked at him.  
He should pursue it. What if the entity was their killer? But he couldn’t leave Izzy. Not in her condition, not when she needed him. If it was showing itself now, it would show itself again. Loki and the child looked at each other for a moment longer then he slid into the back seat with his girl and road to the penthouse.  
He’d be lying if he said he was fine with the affection that he felt for Izzy. He’d be lying if he said it wasn’t growing as he took care of her. She hadn’t left the circle of his arms for more than a moment since he’d woken her. In the office, he’d carried her down to the limo, in the limo, he’d carried her through the lobby and held her through the elevator ride up to the penthouse. He’d laid her on the bed long enough to strip her and himself and run a hot bath for her. Then he’d held her in the water. She woke up at the chill touch of his chest and had sleepily cuddled him. He’d entertained the pair of them by freezing the water on his chest then letting it melt.  
After the bath, he’d carried her to the bed. Which found him staring at the ceiling, recalling all these things. He frowned. He needed to reverse the direction of their affair. To take it back to the physical instead of the clearly emotional road it was heading down at lighting speed. He looked down at her cuddled against his torso. He even reached for her hair to smooth it back from her face before he drew back his hand.  
“Izzy?” She hummed sleepily in response. He rolled onto his side, making her roll onto hers, and then urged her onto her back. She sighed as he began to kiss her neck and her breasts. The backs of his fingers caressed her down her belly to the dark tuft of hair on her mound.  
Izzy laid her hand on his. “Please, no, Loki.” He looked at her. He could force her. He could take her against her will. She would enjoy it after it began. It might even drive her away. But that thought made him disgusted and sick. Both at forcing her and her pulling away from him. “Can we just lie here together? You don’t even have to allow me to cuddle you. I just want to lie here with you.”  
Loki knew she wasn’t rejecting him. He should be ashamed of her suggestion of not touching but he wasn’t. He sighed then lay along her side on his. “Come here, my sweet girl.” He urged her onto her side so that her back pressed against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her, locking their hands together. His thumbs caressed her belly.  
He tucked his face into her neck, listening as her breath evened out and her pulse slowed as she fell asleep. He’d known affection for Angrboda. He'd felt affection for Sigyn. He felt himself in the inexplicable and uncomfortable position of falling in love with Izzy, his Midgardian distraction.


	5. Chapter 5

The flashing lights of the club added to the illusion that the humans who danced and writhed on the dance floor were moving as a cohesive unit. Sweat, alcohol and sex filled Amora’s senses. She lounged in the VIP booth watching the crowd. A young man crawled on the floor up to her. He kissed her elegant foot in the high heel. She smirked and he took that as permission to kiss down her calf to her knee.  
Her lips parted in delight and surprise as he began to kiss and nibble the bend of her knee. She let her legs fall open in invitation to the boy. “Who are you?”  
“Samson.”  
She teased her fingers through his shaggy shoulder length hair. It was surprisingly soft. “And what do you want?”  
“Mr. Keyes has sent me to entertain you in apology for his delay.”  
“And what am I to do with you?”  
“Nothing, miss. I’m the one that is to ‘do’.” Amora waved her hand in the slight gesture to continue. Samson pushed her skirt up to her hips, kissing her thighs as he went. He wrapped his arms around her thighs and pulled her forward with beguiling strength, opening her up to him. He looked up at her with a smirk of his own before her dove forward into her cunt.  
Amora squirmed in the boy’s grasp, her pleasure rising. Oh, he was eager to please. She didn’t care whether that was for her or his boss. His hot mouth against her melted her against the leather seat. Her head dropped back on the cushion, letting the flashing lights dance in her eyes. She didn’t keep quiet when he pushed two fingers inside her. She would definitely have to thank Loki for his apology when she finally made it to the office.

Izzy collapsed onto Loki’s chest breathing heavily. He panted and adjusted her better on his lap. The sweat began to cool on their naked bodies. He looked at the patterns the flashing lights made on the ceiling. Their nightly meeting had taken an interesting turn.  
After making her take the week off to recoup, he’d thrown her back into the mix full tilt. She seemed to be doing just fine. Until he noticed her hands shaking and her glassy eyes. “Izzy, have you done any coke today?”  
“Leo-“  
He held up his hand for her silence. “One, you of all people will use my true name when we are alone. Understood?” She closed her mouth and nodded once. “Two, do not lie to me, little girl. I’m the king of lies, more than your Christian Lucifer. So do not. Now, Izabeth, have you done any coke today?”  
Izzy swallowed and nodded. “Yes.” He frowned. “But only a couple lines before the crowd came in.”  
“I told you what the doctor said.”  
“I know. And I didn’t do any the entire week you had me at your penthouse.”  
“Yet back to work you are and back to the drug.”  
Izzy narrowed her eyes, frowning. “Listen, just because we’re fucking doesn’t mean you tell me what to do.” She stood up off the desk. “You hired me knowing I was a coke head. You started fucking me knowing I was a coke head and using that during sex acts and as leverage.” She turned her back to him and walked around the desk. Loki stood out of the chair. “So don’t you dare become a self-righteous prick on me over ‘the drug’.” She rested her hand on the doorknob. “Are we done here because I’ve got shit to do?”  
Loki moved so fast she didn’t see him move. One moment, he stood at the corner of the desk. The next, he slapped her across the face. Her head rang with the force of the blow. Maybe he’d hit her harder than he’d intended but it got her attention. “You will not speak to me in that tone or that way again. Am I understood, Izabeth?”  
Izzy tongued her split lip. She’d been smacked around by a boyfriend or two in college. It didn’t last long. She’d either beaten them in their sleep or left. She glared at him now. “I’ll talk to you any way I want to fucking talk to you, Leo.” She put emphasis on his assumed name, splitting it into a two syllable word 'Le-O', simply to piss him off. It worked. Perhaps better than she’d intended.  
Loki slapped her a second time hard enough to daze her then grabbed her hair roughly and smashed his mouth against hers. She hit him in the chest and bit his tongue but he kept on, wrapping his arms around her tightly. Her body pressed against his, she could feel his arousal, hot and hard biting into her bare cunt. He broke the kiss by pulling on that handful of her hair in his fist.  
“I do not care if you do coke, Izabeth.” He jerked her body against his. His lustful, hooded eyes hid the rage in him, meeting her lusty yet fearful eyes. He looked at her slender neck stretched taut from his hold on her. He could see her pulse ratcheting away in the throat. He wanted to bite it hard and make her scream. Instead, he ran his tongue up the line of her artery. She shivered, licking her lips. “I will even support your habit if it will make you happy. But you are to stay away from the Rose Red. No more. Not a line, no a bump. Nothing. Am I understood?”  
Izzy trembled with adrenaline, from the cocaine, the violence, a wash of fear and arousal. She didn’t miss that he’d said he wanted to make her happy. “Fine but why?”  
Loki grinned manically. He urged her up onto him. She gave a hop then wrapped her legs around his waist. “Rose Red is special. And I believe its nature and our closeness was what made you so sick.” Izzy tilted her head.  
“You’re up to something, aren’t you?”  
If it were possible, he grinned wider. “Oh my darling, you have no idea.” Loki carried her to the glass wall and braced her back against it, spreading his legs wide. He cupped her face and stared into her eyes. He’d grown cold and distant with Angrboda and he didn’t want to think about Sigyn. The piece of him that felt love and affection, the piece that cared for Izzy, wanted to protect her and take care of her. She saw that piece in his eyes and it made her gasp. “Promise me you will stay away from the Rose Red, Izabeth.”  
“I promise, Loki.” She caressed his cheek. In a moment of tenderness, he leaned into her palm then turned to kiss it. She didn’t hear the zip of his pants for the music. But she felt his fingers against her, testing her then his cock.  
“Look at me, Izzy. I want to watch you come undone.”  
“Oh god…” She closed her eyes and arched against the glass when he thrust up into her. She was tight and he was big and there’d been no foreplay. Uncomfortable pain edged each thrust until her body had stretched and wet enough for him. Her pinch flushed face was utterly beautiful. More beautiful than any Asgardian woman, any Midgardian woman he’d ever seen.  
Her grasping hands clutched desperately at him. She trembled the closer she got. She hated and loved looking into his eyes. She felt so vulnerable, so open, so exposed to him. She felt as if he could see her soul when they were joined together like this. He moved her skirt so her bare ass was against the glass, holding her up effortlessly with his hands on that ass.  
“How does it feel, Izzy?”  
“So good.”  
He nipped her bottom lip. “You know anyone who looks up here can see me fuck you.” She looked away from him to look out the glass. No one was watching them that she could see. “They can see my cock disappearing into your dripping cunt. Do you like that?”  
“Yes.”  
“Why?” His thrusts grew harder, sharper. Her vision flashed white and she struggled to speak. “Tell me why, Izzy.”  
“Because they know I’m yours.”  
Loki grinned. “Do they? Or do they think you’re a whore for fucking your boss? Do they even know you work for me?”  
“Do they even care?” Loki laughed. “They get to see a great cock fuck a great pussy and they get to see a great ass pressed up against the glass.”  
He laughed again. “Perhaps I should flip you around and take you in the ass. Smash your tits against the glass and show the club your face.”  
“Do it.” Her mouth opened, the pleasure coiling in her belly. She shook with how close she was.  
“You want them to know what a whore you are?”  
“Your whore, Loki.” He grinned again. A look over her shoulder showed a few people watching them. “Do it. Show them I belong to you.”  
He grabbed her throat and leaned her head back. “Why should I show them my most prized Earthly possession?” That threw her off. He swept her away from the glass and slammed her down on to the desk, leaning over her. His thrusts were hard and deep. “You’re right. You are mine. And no one else’s ever again unless I say so.” He lifted her legs high around his waist, feeling her heels bite into his ass as it flexed.  
“Yes.”   
“Say it.”  
“I’m yours!”  
“Good girl.” He licked his fingers and reached between him, stroking her clit in time with his thrusts against her g-spot. He held her by the top of the head so she couldn’t look away. He saw the pleasure wash through her eyes. He saw comprehension and reason and all thought vanish from her in that moment. And she was truly his, belonged to him. When he could wipe away everything that she was in an instant, he owned her.  
And most assuredly, she owned him. He knew that…but he’d be damned if he let her or anyone else know. He knew in the way his heart tripped over itself every time he saw her. In the way she would randomly spring into his thoughts. In the way watching and feeling her cum would make him feel more godlike than he ever had. He held out until her aftershocks were over before he came, collapsing onto her chest.  
The door opened. “It’s about time.”  
“Amora.”  
She slammed the door. “Your apology made me cum a few times before I got bored. I’ve been listening to the two of you grunt and scream for the last 15 minutes.” Loki and Izzy watched her walk across the room to the bar. “Is she staying in the room with us?”  
“No, Izzy has work to do.”  
“Two it is then.” She uncorked the decanter and poured two glasses of the swirling amber liquid.  
Izzy dropped her legs and Loki withdrew, turning away from Amora slightly as he tucked himself back into the pants. He didn’t move until Izzy sat up, hiding her most intimate parts from his fellow Asgardian. He took a step back as she stood up.  
“I’ll see you after closing, Loki.”  
He followed her closely to the door. “Unless something arises that needs my attention.”  
“Of course, sir.”  
He opened the door for her. Using the door to block Amora’s view of them, he leaned in and kissed her tenderly. They looked into each other’s eyes a moment after before she turned and headed down the hall to the stairs.  
It was Loki’s turn to the slam the door. “What do you want, Amora?” He snatched the glass from her hand and knocked it back entirely in one mouthful.  
The blonde stunner pouted. “No hospitality tonight, trickster?”  
“You interrupted a private moment.”  
Amora grinned. “Well, forgive me. I assumed since you were fucking her against the glass, privacy wasn’t mandatory in your affairs. She has a peach of an ass, by the way. I could put her to good use if and when you tire of her.”  
Loki fought the urge to snarl and forbid her from touching Izzy. That would give his feelings away. He didn’t want the Enchantress to know of his affection for the girl. Not only would she mock him for it, she would use Izabeth as a pawn. And it could very well put her in danger too. Instead, he rolled his shoulders and neck, projecting annoyance. “I’ll ask one more time, Amora, what do you want?”  
The Enchantress sighed. “The child.”


	6. Chapter 6

Loki and Amora looked out over the crowd. They didn’t appear to be working high magic but they were.

~Moments before…  
Loki glared at Amora. “What child?”  
She scoffed then knocked back the drink and slammed the glass onto the table. “Don’t play games, Loki Laufeyson. You’ve seen her.”  
“It is no child. It is no she either.”  
“Then what is it? Every time I see her, she evades me. Simply vanishes.”  
“It is other. Not of our world. Not of any of the worlds we know of.”  
“Do you think it’s our killer?”  
“No.”  
“How do you know?”  
“The time I saw it, it seemed to be watching. Like it’s only observing. Like it’s waiting for something.”  
Amora crossed her arms over her chest. “Waiting for what?”  
“I don’t know.”  
“Do not lie to me, Loki. I can feel the energy of your working. What are you doing?”  
“I’m not lying. I don’t know what the child is waiting for.” He crossed to the windows. “I’ve only seen it the once.”  
“Only once?”  
“Yes, why? How many times have you seen it?”  
“Nearly every day since we last spoke.”  
Loki smirked. “I think it’s watching you more than I.”  
Amora flipped her hair. “Who knows of your true nature, Loki?”  
“Far more than I am comfortable with.”  
“The little girl knows. Do you trust her?”  
“Yes, I trust her.”  
“Is it wise?”  
“Probably not.” He shrugged. “But she’s not involved with the murders.”  
“How do you know?”  
“Because every time someone’s killed, my dick is in her.”  
“How crass of you.”  
Again, he shrugged. “If I were to say, we were together. You would ask far too many questions.”  
“You’re right. But you needn’t be so vulgar about it.”  
He shrugged. “Perhaps I did it to shock you.”  
She laughed. “Now then I wouldn’t be surprised.” She joined him at the windows. “We could make them give up their secrets.”  
“We could. But high magic would be visible to Heimdall. Need you forget I am hiding from Thor and his S.H.I.E.L.D.” She sighed.  
“And how is your working remaining off their attention? It practically itches over me.”  
“I’m not telling you that.”  
She huffed. “Well, if your working isn’t visible then a little bit of high magic shouldn’t be visible either.”  
He sighed. “Fine. But if only this once.”  
“Come on, Loki, it’s highly unlikely we’ll find the killer tonight. We should do this every evening until we find it.”  
“And what about your spa?” She shrugged. “The child is there watching. Perhaps it’s watching for the killer.”

Ms. Moore had asked that Rebecca close up the spa tonight. She didn’t have plans with her boyfriend so it wasn’t a big deal. She waited for all the clients to leave before she locked the door. She dropped the money in the floor safe in Ms. Moore’s office then made sure every room was ready for tomorrow. She was not aware of the shape of the child that followed her around as she completed her tasks.  
A dark shadow fell over Rebecca as she locked the door. She turned to it slowly. “Oh, you scared me, officer.”  
“Forgive me, miss. With the murders, Ms. Moore asked me to keep an extra eye on the place. Would you like me to walk you to your car?”  
“If you would please, that’d be great.”  
They chatted amiably as they walked together down the alley to the sidewalk. Looking both ways, they crossed the deserted street. The officer made sure she got in her car and watched her until she drove away. He turned to go back to his beat when he noticed the child.  
“You there!” The child didn’t move. It watched. “Hey, shouldn’t you be at home?” He felt a tap on his shoulder before he could advance on the child. The officer turned, choking on his words as the blade slit his throat with precision and swiftness.


	7. Chapter 7

Izzy looked up from the table. She was on a lunch date with some friends from college. There were four of them total. Two had married wealthy but only one of those had yet to have children, and had let their education and degrees wither away. The third was working her way to the top in a male dominated field that Izzy really didn’t care about but smiled and nodded.  
“So what have you been up to, Iz?”  
She sipped her drink and looked at the expectant faces sitting around the table. She’d organized this lunch shortly after her overdose or episode, incident…whatever. She felt she needed human contact outside of the club.  
“I’m the assistant manager at Club Valhalla.”  
The three women looked at her with something of awe. “Wow, Iz, that’s great!” She shrugged.  
The woman on her right touched her arm. “No really! Seth and I managed to get in after waiting in line for 5 hours one night.”  
“Have you met Leo Keyes?”  
Izzy grinned into her fork, blushing lightly. “Yes, I have.”  
“What’s he like?”  
“Moody, intense…fucks like a freight train.” She said the last breathlessly. The three women laughed. “He’s so intelligent and careful with the business. I really just run the day to day shit and handle the employees. It’s really amazing.”  
The married women looked at each other. They knew that look on Izzy’s face.  
“You’re not just fucking him, are you?”  
Izzy shrugged, looking past them out the window. Traffic rushed by on the street. Pedestrians didn’t stop. They were all just a flash in the pan to these Asgardians. She was. She would grow old and wither and die and Loki wouldn’t age a day in her life time.  
“Iz, come on.” Her three college friends wheedled.  
She shrugged again. “I love him. It’s stupid. I know he’s only fucking me until he gets bored. Then he’ll fuck someone else until he gets bored of them.”  
“And when he does?”  
“I’ll probably crawl back like I have done the last 3 years.”  
The woman to her right leaned in. “Out of those 3 years, how long have you been apart? What’s the longest time period?”  
“Oh no, I know what you’re getting at.”  
“And what am I getting at?”  
“Leo does not care about me like that.”  
“But he does care?”  
“Well, yes…I had an incident a little over a month ago and he took care of me.”  
“Iz, if you two were just fucking, he wouldn’t have taken care of you.”  
“Answer the question.”  
She puffed out air, looking at the ceiling to avoid their inquisitive eyes. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. “I think the longest was a month.”  
“Oh come on, Iz. He has feelings for you. He’s just afraid to admit it. He trusts you, doesn’t he?”  
“He does.” Izzy pushed her food around her plate.  
“So tell him.”  
“I can’t.”  
“Why not?”  
“What if my feelings are just Izzy around a hot, intelligent man with authority again? What if I don’t really love him? And I tell him and it ruins a good thing.” She drew in a deep breath. “Can we talk about something else?”

Loki couldn’t help himself from staring at Izzy behind the bar. She’d been unusually quiet during their nightly meeting. When he kissed her, attempting to stoke her passion and relieve some of his tension before his meeting with Amora, she’d kissed him with a guarded tenderness. His rough hands eased their grip on her and glided down her arms. He’d looked into her eyes afterward and found her lost in thought and possibly emotion. Had he misread her? Had the tables turned and now she was growing bored of him?  
He’d gotten a reprieve from these thoughts when Amora showed up, fit to be tied and spitting venom about a dead police officer on her payroll. “Amora, calm down. You’re practically shooting off sparks. I’m just glad you had the sense to come in the back.”  
“Do not tell me to calm down, Trickster!” Loki barely flinched at the discharge of power. “This is an act of aggression. He was one of mine. My people. I protected them. Someone wants to go to war with me.” The air crackled around her. Her ample bosom heaved with her infuriated breath.  
Loki shrugged. “Perhaps you are right. My clientele have stopped turning up dead and upon further investigation, the ones that did had frequented your establishment. So we’ve discovered one thing.”  
“What’s that?”  
“I am not the target. You are.”  
“Me? Why would I be the target?”  
“That is the new query. Once we figure that out, it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out who’s behind this. Have you seen the child anymore?”  
“When I have not?”  
“Have you attempted to make contact?”  
“Many times.”  
Loki looked at her now, really looked at her, past her glamour and beauty. He saw the tremble in her, the fear in her eyes. Amora the Enchantress was afraid. Of the killer or the child, he couldn’t be certain. Perhaps both. He sighed. “I’ll come by soon and take a look around. Perhaps there is something you missed.”  
Amora raised her eyebrow suspiciously. “Won’t you showing up arouse suspicion?”  
“I’ll bring Izabeth. I’ll treat her to a day of pampering. No expense spared.” He smiled his broad, charming smile.  
Amora tilted her head to the side. “You truly care for that girl, don’t you, Loki?”  
He debated on whether or not to tell her. But he didn’t see the harm in it. He’d already marked her as his, in all the Nine Realms. There was no hiding it. She was a target, a burden, a liability. And he’d taken it on with no regrets. It was inevitable, he supposed.   
“I love her. The last emotion to be corrupted by…and it took a little girl to do it.”  
Amora shook her head. “This will all in end tears, Loki. Yours, hers, both, it matters not. You will ruin her.”  
“I already have.”  
“So be it. When can I expect you?”  
He leaned forward and flipped through the calendar on his desk. “How’s Sunday? The club is closed. She can return to my penthouse and continue to relax.”  
“Loki in love. Oh this, I’ve got to see.”  
“Don’t push it, Amora.” The Enchantress lifted her hands in deference.  
“It’s been lovely but I should get back. No more letting the girls close up alone. It could have easily been Rebecca.” She wrapped the stole around her shoulders and strode out, her hair dancing around her. He swore it was alive. That the glamour she steeped herself in had somehow given it life. It wouldn’t be the first time magic had done something like that. The door closed behind her of its own volition.  
So here he stood, hands clasped behind his back, watching the humans on the dance floor. His influence was spreading through the city and beyond via the Rose Red. Party favors showing up in clubs all over the city and on the streets and private house parties. He was giving the Colombians who hadn’t allied with him a run for their money. When the killings first started, he’d suspected them. But a parlay so to speak with the cartels proved that they weren’t. In fact, they were eager to get on board with the great Leo Keyes.  
Loki couldn’t just magically produce the amount of cocaine he needed. That would draw too much unnecessary attention. No, he used the Colombian cocaine as the base and went from there. Though he had no use for the money, he was making it hand over fist. He had the thought to give it to Izzy. She was his and he would take care of her. She would need it after he left. Especially if everything came to pass.  
He found her now, behind the bar. She stared listlessly out over the crowd, lost in thought. She smiled at a bar patron. He watched as she made small talk with the over eager young man. He felt the familiar flip of jealousy. His teeth ground together. A moment later the boy was gone and Izzy was staring off into space again.  
He watched as the crowd dwindled then finally as they were made to leave. He could see the effects of the Rose Red. The crowds increased every night. They stayed longer, drank more, danced more, and did more coke. Then he watched his employees do their nightly routine. The bartenders took their drawers into the back to be counted with Izzy. The waitresses divvied up their tips, including the tithe to the bartenders. The bus boys gathered the glasses from the tables. With the house lights up and the music down low, it lent a sadness to the air. It was over for the night. No matter that the partiers would return the next day, for now, this was the end.   
Without a word, he left the window. His employees looked up as he descended the stairs. The deejay felt compelled to put on Barry White ‘You’re the first, the last, my everything’. He began to dance, at first by himself. Then he pulled each of the waitresses in for a spin until Izzy and the last bartender emerged. She watched from the behind the bar with a smile as he danced, randomly pulling an employee in then he looked at her and beckoned her just before the song ended.  
She shook her head. “I don’t think so, Mr. Keyes. Everyone is ready to go home.”  
“Douglas, my boy, play it again.” He held his hand out to her, staring intently at her. “Come, Izabeth.” The air between them practically crackled with energy. She glanced around at the assembled employees, who seemed to be holding their breath in anticipation. What was she waiting for?  
She stepped around the bar. Her heels clicked loudly on the floor over the music. Their hands met, sending a shiver through the room. The employees sighed in relief. Their King had his Queen. Their bodies moved in sync to music. Loki grinned at the laughing smile on her face as they moved and spun. Their dance began to weave magic in the air.  
He felt the working just before it burst. He looked up, using sights other than his eyes to watch it connect with the working he’d been weaving since he’d come to Midgard. The shimmering interlocked tendrils of magic swelled and he thought for a moment they would pop. But no. To his surprise, they burst forth, longer and stronger, reaching farther and spreading his influence more. But the power contained was too much for the shield he’d put in place. He watched that pop like a fragile bubble into the ether.  
There it was then. Club Valhalla glowed like a beacon now. No matter, let them come. They wouldn’t roust him out so easily. All this happened within an instance. And when he looked down, she practically glowed herself, the wild magic from the Rose Red and his cast off glamour. She beamed up at him from where he’d dipped her backwards.  
“I love you.” Her chest heaved as she tried to catch her breath. Her face flushed with exertion and anxiety at her revelation. He grinned and kissed her in front of everyone.  
Though his words were barely a whisper, they were a shout in her ears as they fell against her lips. “And I love you.”


	8. Chapter 8

The limo pulled up to Spellbound Spa. The driver hopped out and opened the back door. Loki unfolded himself from the back seat, tugged on his waistcoat then turned for Izzy’s hand. She surveyed the spa. She’d never heard of it before Loki mentioned that he wanted to pamper his favorite human. His arm wound around her waist and they walked to the door.  
The doorman shifted uncomfortably, noting Loki’s other nature. “Sir, miss.” He opened the door for them. Izzy pulled her sunglasses off as soon as they entered the luxurious lobby. A fountain bubbled off to the side and plush chairs sat in a grouping, waiting for someone to sit in them.  
“Leo, you shouldn’t have.”  
He turned her to face, holding her chin. “I’m allowed to pamper the person I care about.” He didn’t let her look away until she smiled. “You may have whatever you want.”  
“What are you going to do?”  
“I’ll be around. Amanda asked me to look into a few things while I was here.”  
“Oh.” Izzy knew this was too good to be true. He’d come here for business.  
“Now don’t pout, darling.” She couldn’t help it. “Isabeth, don’t behave like a child. I’ll take you somewhere pretty next weekend.”  
Rebecca chose that moment to walk up and break up the tension. “Mr. Keyes, Ms. Moore informed me you would be coming. This is the lucky lady?”  
“Yes, this is my Izzy.”  
She noticed the possessive way he’d said ‘my’. “We’ll take good care of her. Izzy, come right this way.” Izzy looked over her shoulder as she was led away by the cheerfully aggressive brunette. Loki blew her a kiss before setting to work.  
He pressed against Amora’s wards and they pressed back. She had good security. Which made him worry about the nature of the child. He went over every room in the spa and even outside. Her otherworldly security was intact. That left her worldly security. She employed several supernatural and preternatural guards. They all eyed him warily.  
~  
The spa had wrapped Izzy in seaweed, given her a mud bath and let her soak her in the hot tub before she was taken the massage room. Loki kept checking in on her even as he inspected the spa itself. He sent out his magic, testing the physical world itself. He paused outside of a storeroom.  
“Ho, ho, what is this?” He tried the knob and it would not turn. A passing attendant tilted her head and looked at him curiously.  
“Can I help you, Mr. Keyes?”  
Her African accent sounded as much like liquid chocolate as her soft flesh looked. He raised his eyebrow in quiet appraisal. Were he not besotted with Izabeth, he would have a taste of this one. “Do you have a key for this door, lovely?”  
She laughed, thinking him joking. “There is no door there, Mr. Keyes.”  
“But there is. You can’t see it?”  
“I’m positive there is no door, Mr. Keyes.” She passed her hands over the smooth wall that she saw. He watched her hands ghost over the door he saw. “See, sir. No door.”  
“Of course, you’re right.” He clasped his hands at the small of his back and turned the full weight of his charm on her. His grin made her shift. He didn’t miss her pressing her thighs together. “Would you be so kind as to fetch Amanda for me?”  
“Yes, sir.” She smiled, her lush lips prodding him to have a taste. He watched her hurry down the hall. Midgard did not lack for beautiful women. They came in all shapes and sizes and colors and he had tasted many since his exile. Yet, only Izzy had sung a song his soul could hear. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the door. It sent a pleasant shock through him so he moved to the side.  
Amora strode up, her blonde hair twitching with her aggravation. “Ceil says you’re hallucinating.” She paused then looked from Loki to the door. “Where’d that door come from?”  
“So I guess you wouldn’t have the key.”  
“No, I most certainly do not. This has always been a wall. There’s no need for a door here. “  
“What’s on the other side?”  
“The massage rooms.”  
Loki frowned. “Where is Izabeth?”  
Ceil happened to be on her way back to wherever she’d come from when Loki had stopped her. “Ceil, where is the lady who came with Mr. Keyes?”  
“She’s in massage right now, ma’am.”  
Loki felt the shift in the air a moment before Amora did. “Get her out of there. Now.” She nodded then was gone. Loki turned to the door and blasted glowing energy from his hands at the door. It rippled and vibrated but didn’t open. Ceil screamed and shielded her eyes, not quickly enough though. The electric discharg burned her retinas and blinded her, bleaching her irises a ghostly white.  
~  
Izzy lay under the towel, the silence of the room broken only by the faint trickle of the table top fountain in the corner. She closed her eyes as the hands touched her. They were strong for a woman’s hands. She half expected Loki to try to sneak and take advantage of her in her relaxed and pampered position.  
“You’re really good with your hands.” Her masseuse remained quiet. “I haven’t been this relaxed ever.” She sighed. Still no response or reaction from the woman with her hands on her. “You don’t talk much do you?”  
“No.” The strong hands edged on painful but Izzy was used to some pain. She was in a kinda-sorta relationship with Loki afterall. She smirked, wondering if he’d found anything or if she’d been the only one to benefit from his investigation today. The hands pinched too hard. “Ow, hey, easy.”  
“My apologies.”  
The hands pinched harder. Izzy could almost feel the bruises blossoming already. “Ow, hey, that hurts. Could you stop please?”  
“No.”  
“I said stop.” Izzy whipped up and around but the woman had her by the throat was lifting her by it, slowly cutting off her oxygen as she did so.  
“And I said no.” The woman watched her eyes widen in terror. The pupils dilated, blown wide, turning her blue eyes black. The whites were impossibly large. Her heart rate tripled. She saw past whatever illusion the woman had worked to gain entrance to the spa, perhaps because of her relationship with Loki, and what she saw terrified her beyond reason.  
Izzy tried to scream for Loki but she couldn’t get enough air. “Calling for him will do you no good. He will not get here in time.”  
~  
Loki gritted his teeth as he continued to fire uselessly at the door. He panted, incensed. Ceil whimpered from the floor across the hall. He turned to look at her, baring his teeth in a snarl but she couldn’t see it to flinch.  
The door popped open and swung inward. Loki whipped around and stared at it. He moved into the room, which worked like a two way mirror. He could see Izzy on the table. The woman, who even through the barrier felt familiar. He watched the woman get progressively rougher with Izzy until she snatched her up by the throat.  
Loki screamed and raged from the other side of the barrier. Faintly, he heard pounding on the other side. Amora attempting to get in the room, he hoped. Then the woman turned to face him and all glamour dropped.  
“You!” She winked, grinning manically then was gone with Izzy clutched her hand. The barrier swelled a moment then broke, dropping Loki into the massage room and let the door open, spilling Amora into the room as well.  
“Loki? How did you- Where’s Izabeth? Where’s Ceil?”  
“It was Angie!” Loki paced the small room like a caged lion.  
“Who?”  
“Angie! Angrboda!”  
“That old hag? What would she want with Izabeth?”  
“I haven’t a clue. I haven’t seen her since Fenris’s last litter.”  
Amora sighed. “Well, one thing’s for certain.”  
“What’s that?”  
“She was after you.”  
“What makes you think that?”  
“I had a meeting with my man in the police department.” Amora sat on the massage table and crossed her legs. “Remember how you said that your patrons stopped dying yet mine continued to die. And that yours only died because they’d come to the spa.”  
“Yes.”  
“Well, toxicology came back on the victims who only came to the spa.” Loki knew she was leading him somewhere. “They all came back positive for cocaine.”  
“Rose Red.”  
“Exactly.”  
“But why would Angie target me? I haven’t seen her since Fenris’s last litter. And even then we were on good terms. She didn’t try to kill me and I didn’t try to fuck her.”  
“Perhaps that’s why.” Amora looked Loki up and down. “I’ll admit. It’s been quite confusing trying to figure out why you care for the human. When you could have me if you would only ask. And Angrboda as well. We might not like you, Loki, but you are phenomenal in the sack. That is a fact we cannot deny.”  
He grinned despite himself but it quickly fell. “As much as I appreciate the acknowledgement of my sexual prowess, that doesn’t tell me why she would want to take Izabeth.”  
“Jealousy.” He goggled at her. “Oh come now, Loki, you have three children together. If it’s not me you run back to, it’s her. And then you declare your love with that light show. What was that about anyway?”  
“I didn’t declare-“  
“Oh please, you cannot fool me even though you fool yourself. Thor will be coming, no doubt.”  
“Do not remind me.” He sighed. “Well, this solves the killings. But would Angie take Izzy? I was fucking you the last time we saw each other.”  
Amora shrugged. “Maybe that’s why she started killing our shared patrons.” Before he could say ‘But why Izzy’ again, she held up her hand. “She took Izabeth because you’re not fucking me, you’re fucking her. And you declared your love for her in a rather spectacular way. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to tend to Ceil.”  
“My apologies for that. It was an accident.”  
Amora waved him away as she slid off the massage table. “Our business is done. Get out.” She left him in the massage room alone. He sent out his awareness to see if he could track Angrboda from here. No such luck. The Witch of Ironwood was smarter than that. Loki would have to find her another way.


	9. Chapter 9

Club Valhalla sat quiet. It was eerie but a weekly occurrence on Sundays. Usually, the only person there was Izzy as she catching up on things she couldn’t squeeze into the day by day workdays. One this Sunday, there happened to be two people in.  
Loki stood in the doorway, staring at the broad back and long blonde locks of his brother Thor. He pinched the bridge of his nose to regain some calm and composure. The oaf knew every button of Loki’s to push and today would be a bad day to do so.  
“Thor.”  
“Brother.”  
“What are you doing here?”  
“I was sent.”  
“I don’t think I need to ask by whom.”  
“If you must know, by all interested parties.”  
“I haven’t the time for this.” He strode to the desk. Thor turned from the window overlooking the dance floor.  
“What is the meaning of all this?” He gestured around the room, no doubt talking about the club itself as well as the working that glowed like a beacon in the night. He couldn’t have known about the Rose Red. He wasn’t that clever.  
“Thor, please, I haven’t the time.” He opened the middle drawer and pulled out an ancient key that dangled from an equally ancient chain. He crossed the room, giving Thor his back, to the locked door that no one ever asked about, if they even realized it was there.  
He put the key in the lock and pushed both doors open. “Loki.”  
The frost giant ignored his brother, turning to his, for lack of a better word, workshop and set to work. Thor watched him gather a scrying bowl, athame and several other items that Thor couldn’t identify.  
“Loki, we need to talk.”  
“Thor, for the last time, I don’t have time. I have to find Izabeth.”  
“Who?” Loki would have smirked at the look of confusion on his brother’s face were he not in hurry. The longer it took, the weaker her trail would be.  
“Izabeth, my human.” Thor raised an eyebrow. He’d never seen Loki this distressed over a Midgardian. “My lover.” Thor’s eyebrows shot into his hair. “Now, get out of my way or help me.” Loki paused, eye’s widening as a thought dawned on him. “You love these precious humans. They’re under your protection, correct?”  
Thor cocked an eyebrow. This whole situation was moving far too fast for his tastes. “Aye.”  
Loki could tell the man was wary. “I’ll abandon my plans if you help me find Izabeth.”  
“And what were your plans?” Thor tried to keep everything in order but Loki moved so swiftly at times.  
“That doesn’t matter right now. What matters is that Izabeth was taken. By someone from our world. By Angrboda.”  
Again, Thor’s eyebrows shot into his hair line. He hadn’t seen that coming. “Why would the witch of Ironwood take your girl?”  
“I’ve been asking myself that very question, Thor.” Before the golden god of thunder to react, Loki turned away from him and slit his own throat over the bowl, spraying blood over the table. His tilted back head aimed at the bowl.  
“LOKI!” Thor lunged forward. Loki dropped his chin to his chest. Blood ran down his collarbone and chest in a breathtaking ruby choker. It trickled from his dull, thin lips, bubbling as he breathed. His flesh began to knit back together, albeit shades paler nearly grey. “What is the meaning of this?” Thor’s shocked and disgusted eyes beheld the ritual.  
Loki held up a finger. He couldn’t speak until his trachea was whole once more. His belly churned with the intrusion of the blood. His hands shook even as they glowed with the bright green light indicative of his magic. His lips murmured runes of magic. He drew on the working that covered the club, pulling part of its power into him and pushing it into the spell. He would need all the help he could get against the witch of the woods.  
His voice croaked painfully when he spoke next. “I have to find her. She’s human. She’s fragile. Angie will kill her then I will be forced to deal with her.” And by deal with, he meant slaughter the thrice damned whore where she stood. “Set your human companions to look for her. Or your father or Heimdall.”  
“Loki, I don’t-“  
Loki whipped around to face Thor. In his weakened appearance, he looked ghastly and feral. His eyes had sunk a bit into his deathly pallor. He hadn’t seen him look this bad since the cave with the snake. But they weren’t going to talk about that. “Thor, I –have- to find her.”  
A thought flared in Thor’s brain. He’d never seen his brother this incensed over a woman before. He raised an eyebrow slowly. “I will help you but you will tell me why.”  
“Why what?”  
“Why you have to find her?”  
“Because…” Loki swallowed and it felt like razors, but he was whole again. The flesh was still tender and weak, but no longer open. “Because I love her.”  
Thor’s stern face spread into a jovial grin. He clapped his brother on the arm. “Loki finally knows love! She must be something truly spectacular.”  
“She is. Now, go. Do what you can to find her. You know where I am. I’m not leaving until I do.” He leaned over the pool of blood in the bowl. The blood did not clot nor congeal. It was thin, almost like red water. Thor left him to his archaic ways.  
Loki’s body trembled with fear and rage. He had to find her. His ghostly pale fingers trembled on the edge of the bowl. His keen eyes searched the images flipping past in the blood before him. He would find her. He would find them both.


	10. Chapter 10

Izzy’s head pounded something fierce. And her chest felt tight, like she when was on the ski lift in the Colorado Rockies when she was 12. She tried to sit up and her head gave a sharp pain before she turned to the side and vomited. The splash told her she was somewhere with smooth floors.  
“Ah, you’re awake.”  
“I’d rather not if I continue to feel like this.”  
The dark chuckled chilled her. “That can be arranged.”  
Izzy squeezed her eyes shut and pressed her arm against them. “Can I have some water or something? Or is that not allowed in kidnapping?”  
A cool hand touched hers and wrapped it around a simple cup. “That is if you trust me not to poison you.”  
“I don’t but I think you’re smart enough not to go to all this trouble to kidnap me just to kill me.”  
Angrboda hummed. “Clever of you to figure that out.”  
“I’m not just a pretty face.” She twisted to the side but kept her eyes closed as she sipped the water. She rinsed her mouth out then spit in the same direction she’d vomited.  
“No, you’re not.” Izzy stiffened, catching the insult. “What he sees in you, I don’t see it.” Her hair was roughly pulled as Angrboda manhandled her head, getting a good look at her. “He’s always had a weakness for blondes. Sigyn, Amora.” She scoffed, disgusted.  
“Who are you?”  
“Open your eyes and find out.” Izzy opened her eyes slowly and turned to look at her captor. She was struck by the otherworldly beauty of the woman. “I am Angrboda. The mother to Loki’s children and his one true mate.”  
Izzy knew her from mythology…and her children. Sometimes being in a serious relationship with a god fucked with your reality. Good thing she was a coke head. The drugs made things easier to say fuck it and go along with. “Where are we?”  
“The Black Forest.”  
“The Bla- How the fuck- You know, no. I don’t even want to know.” Izzy sat up fully. Her head gave a dull throb. Angrboda’s lush lips curled into a smile. “Why?”  
“I had taken you to Jotunheim but the world shift made you violently ill. And as you’ve figured out, you’re no good to me dead.”  
“Alright, so why kidnap me? I’m just his assistant who he fucks when he’s bored.”  
Angrboda hissed and clicked her tongue. “Such ignorance of your worth, child.” She combed her fingers through Izzy’s hair. “My darling values you very much. Even now, he’s tearing down his great working to use its power to try to find us.”  
“Will it do him any good?”  
“I’m not hiding. I want him to find us.” She emphasized the word ‘want’. “Now, let’s get you cleaned up. I’ll even be charitable and give you a poultice for your head.”  
“Some aspirin is fine. Or a bump.”  
“What’s a ‘bump’?”  
“This.” Izzy pulled out the necklace Loki had given her when he’d told her no more Rose Red. He kept it full of the Columbian product before it became Rose Red. She unscrewed the charm to reveal a hidden vial and placed it to her nostril. She pressed the opposite one closed and inhaled. The euphoria took a moment to wash through her shortly after the powder hit her mucous membranes.  
She lay back on the stone slab and gave her body a moment to enjoy the high before the rush hit. The pain washed away before the euphoria and the rush. Izzy screwed the vial back on then looked at her captor. She had maybe two hits let in the vial before she was out. Then if she didn’t take another hit, she would start to come down. And she didn’t want to be with Angrboda when that happened.

Leo Keyes, Loki Laufeyson, stood on the other side of the one way glass and watched the humans bump and grind and writhe, drunk and high and coked out of their minds. He’d given every one coming in the door a hit of Rose Red. The wait staff and bartenders were handing them out like candy. There would probably be overdoses. But he didn’t care. He needed their energy, their essence, their desire and want. He had asked Thor for help but he wasn’t counting on him. Or his human companions for that matter.  
He heard the boom of Thor’s arrival on the roof, but made no move. His hands clasped at the small of his back, he made an imposing figure, glowering over the dance floor. It was moments like this his true, selfish nature came through. He didn’t care for these people. He needed them to his end. And his end was to find Izzy. Because he couldn’t live without her. He needed her love to keep from doing things like that. Yet, he didn’t see the irony in his actions.  
The air crackled with energy as Thor strode into the room. “Brother, what are you doing?”  
“It’s none of your concern.”  
“I can feel it in the air. Others can as well. What are you playing at?”  
“I’m finding my Queen!” Loki spun around, his hands flying out to his sides. Magic, manifesting as green aura, flowed up and down his arms.  
“Says the King without a throne.”  
They stalked toward each other, meeting in the middle of the room. Their powers cracked and popped and rebounded off each other. “I will find her.”  
“You asked for my help. Let me help you.”  
“Have you found anything?”  
“Not yet.” Loki scoffed and whirled away. “It’s only been a full day, brother.”  
“And the longer we take, who knows what Angie is doing to her. And if my pet lets it slip that I have told her I love her then it will be some much worse.”  
“You’re being overly dramatic, Loki.” Thor laid his hand on his brother’s shoulder.  
Loki shrugged him off. “You have met my ex-wife? You think I’m mad. She’s far worse. And she holds me responsible for what Odin has done to Fenris.”  
“The boy was a menace.”  
“And we were not?!” Thor had to give him that. They were far from well-behaved growing up. But there weren’t dire werewolves in human skin. “Look, you go back to your humans and try to find her your way. And I’ll try to find her mine.”  
“How will I know to come help you rescue her if you find her?”  
“Oh you’ll know.”  
“Loki, what have you done?”  
Thor grabbed his brother by the arm and flung him around. “What I had to!” Almost on cue, bodies began dropping in the club below. Cries went up in alarm. Loki smacked Thor’s hand away only for him to grab him again. Loki landed a solid right hand before Mjolnir struck him in the gut and sent him flying backward through the glass.  
Glass rained down on the club goers. Loki landed on his back in the middle of the dance floor. Screams and cries went up. There were people running everywhere. Thor stood in the hole in the glass. Loki grunted as he pulled himself out of the cracked tile and brushed himself off.  
“That was uncalled for.”  
Thor dropped to the dance floor smoothly. “It put a stop to whatever you were doing here.”  
“I was gathering energy to find her, you dolt!” Loki shouted in his face then shoved him backward with both hands on his chest. He forced himself to visibly calm down. He smoothed his hand through his long but handsome hair and tugged the black suit jacket straight. “No matter, I should have enough.” He looked around at the deserted club. “Now, if you’ll excuse me. I have work to do.”  
“Brother.” Thor grabbed his wrist as he passed.  
“Get your paw off me. You’ve won the day. Hell, you have no idea that you’ve won a greater battle that never even took place.”  
“What are you talking about?”  
“The drugs! The cocaine! My influence and my adoration, my worship, has swept through the city and it borders. Had I been successful, I would have used my Columbian friends to spread it like wildfire. And you and your humans couldn’t have stopped me. But that damnable WOMAN! Had to get jealous.”  
Thor looked dumbfounded.  
Loki shook his head and turned away. “Now leave me so I can find her. Regale your friends with your success.” Loki climbed the stairs to the second floor. He passed the office then headed to the roof. He heard Thor call him from the dance floor but he made no acknowledgement.  
The tangled nest of lines of magic glowed brilliantly for those looking for it. Loki shrugged off the jacket and tossed it somewhere in the gravel and tar. He unbuttoned his cuffs and rolled his sleeves up to his elbows. He stood in the center, muttering his incantations in a tongue no one living would understand if overheard, not even Thor. Perhaps Odin or Angie would have known the language.  
“Loki!”  
“Leave me be, Thor!” His hands worked the air, wrapping the lines around his fingers and wrists and weaving the working into something new. His lips moved just barely with the continuous incantation. His hands flew rapidly around his person, tearing and weaving and tearing again. Thor watched in silent awe as the lines of magic flickered into his vision, growing dark then redrawing themselves at his brother’s will.  
The jumbled pattern became incomprehensible. The runes of power, drawn in the air with the magic became indecipherable Loki wrote layer upon layer. With a shout of his expended effort, he hurled the working aloft. It flared out like a spinning blade, going as far as either god could see in all directions before it winked out.  
Loki stared into the night sky, ignoring his kin. He willed the spell to work. He defied it to leave him empty-handed after everything he’d poured into it. Thor heard the high-pitched whirring before Loki and before either of them saw it. The spinning blade of magic struck the dark god in the gut, doubling him over.  
Loki’s brilliant green eyes bled white as he dropped to his knees. The vision filled his mind as it carried him across the worlds to Jotunheim. He screamed, drawing his arms in against his chest as he felt her agony. The vision carried him back into Midgard then across the ocean. It carried him through Spain and France and into Germany and the Black Forest. The working crashed against Angie’s wards and shattered them. There! He saw her! Izzy was alive. Unconscious but alive!  
The magic hissed and cracked, charging the air around Loki. Thor felt the tension in the air before his brother’s final scream shattered the tangled nest of lines. The energetic discharge leveled the building on which they stood and the buildings on all four sides, sending the passing traffic skittering like toy cars.  
Thor crawled to his brother. “Loki!” His white eyes stared past the Asgardian, their milky tint unsettling to the blonde. Had he gone blind?  
“She is alive. I know where she is.” Sirens filled the night.  
“Brother, are you alright?”  
“The price for the knowledge was my sight. It’s only temporary. It will return.” Loki could already see the hazy outline of his brother’s bulk leaned over him. “I need your help, Thor.”  
“Loki, look what you have done.” Thor looked around at the destruction. There were probably people trapped and dying or dead.  
Loki chuckled. “I am blind, Thor. How can I see what I have done?”  
Thor sighed. “You must be called to task for your actions.”  
“After!” Loki clutched at Thor’s cape. “I’ll accept whatever punishment I am dealt. But we must save Izabeth! Help me, brother!”  
He knew he would regret it, but Thor sighed and helped Loki to his feet, giving the temporarily blind man his shoulder to lean on. “Where is she?”  
“Germany, the Black Forest, do you know where that’s at?”  
“I am familiar with it. We have many worshipers there still.”  
Loki held himself up in front of Thor. “Thank you for this, brother.” Thor’s chest clenched at the ruin of his once proud brother. He must truly love this girl to sacrifice so much for her.  
“Hang on to me.”  
Loki latched onto Thor as best he could. He closed his sightless eyes against the air rushing past him. “I am coming, my pet.”


	11. Chapter 11

Angrboda knew they were coming. She’d felt his working hit her wards like a canon blast. And since she’d put a piece of herself in the wards to make them stronger, she’d felt that blast in her very core. Her shriek of agony was the stuff of nightmares. It woke every sleeping mind in area in a terrified cold sweat, remembering when humans were the hunted and not the hunters.  
Izzy cowered in the room she’d been given, her hands over her ears. Still, Angrboda’s shriek echoed in her mind. Her mind froze in terror. She hugged herself tightly. Pupils blown, the whites of her eyes shone the firelight. A faint tremble shook her frame. There wasn’t enough cocaine in existence to make this blind terror go away.  
The door to her room slammed open. Angrboda stood in the doorway. She looked every inch the frost giant she was. Her blue-tinted flesh was ethereal in the air that shimmered around her, the darker blue and white markings on her visible flesh seemed to glow. Her long crimson hair swirled around her like blood soaked Medusan serpents.  
“He is coming.” Her voice vibrated with power as she stalked across the room. She grabbed Izzy up by the arm and dragged her from the corner. Her brilliant blue eyes bored into Izzy’s. “And you will learn why the Witch of Ironwood is feared.”  
“No, no, no, no.” Izzy clawed at her hand on her arm until pale and blue flesh bloodied. She planted her feet time and again before she resorted to throwing herself on the ground. Angrboda simply dragged her along, kicking and screaming. She flung her onto the stone slab Izzy had awoken on. In a flash of light, the raised slab was surrounded by a hissing throng of venomous snakes. Izzy screamed as she cowered, trying to make herself as small as possible to the darting triangular heads that nearly passed the top of the stone.  
The tatters of Angrboda’s ward shivered as Thor and Loki soared across. Their landing sent a tremor through the medieval citadel. The Witch of Ironwood waited on her throne of stone and bone for her lover to return home.

Thor and Loki stood before the doors. The lack of guards unsettled the Asgardian and he said as much. Loki shook his head. “Angie is more than powerful enough to handle the pair of us. She doesn’t need guards. Or escorts to herald our arrival, for that matter. She’d have felt us cross her wards, what was left of them anyway.”  
“So how do we find her?”  
“We simply walk in. She’s not hiding. She wants me here.”  
“And me?”  
“I don’t think she cares.”  
“And your woman?”  
“Oh she’ll kill her if it meets her end.” Loki could see more shapes and hazy colors.  
“How is your sight?”  
“Returning but I am still useless in this fight.”  
Thor sighed. “Why am I still being drawn into your battles, brother?”  
“Because you are my brother.” Loki clapped Thor’s shoulder. “And in this fight, I am grateful.”  
The doors opened when they stepped toward them. Izzy’s terrified screams brought Loki’s head around. He darted in their direction but Thor clamped a hand on his arm, yanking him back.  
“Have a care, brother.”  
“That is my Izabeth!”  
“And we have no clue what is happening. Rushing in there, especially in your condition, could cause her more harm.” Loki sighed, jerking his arm free. They ran through the halls together. The hissing grew louder as did Izzy’s sobbing between the screams…and a dark chuckle that belonged to the Witch of Ironwood.  
“And my love has returned!” Angie opened her arms wide as Loki and Thor turned through the archway and into the cavernous room.  
“Let her go, Angrboda.”  
“Why Thor! So nice of you to join us. A family affair is this then?” Her sneer made her otherworldly beautiful face ugly. “Oh I forgot! Your father has imprisoned my family!” The walls trembled with her rage. Izzy wailed and cowered smaller if it were possible. Loki’s blind eyes sought out her direction.  
“Izabeth?”  
“Loki!” A snake flashed its fangs frighteningly close to Izzy’s hand.  
Loki shook off his brother’s hand and stalked toward the throne. He could make out Angie’s figure upon the throne. Her aura the same as it has always been. “I’m here. Now let her go.”  
“But I’m having so much fun.” ‘Fun’ was forced through gritted teeth and a flick of her wrist. Numerous snakes launched themselves at the stone slab, hissing angrily. Izzy shrieked and stood up, making herself even smaller as the striking snakes grew closer.  
“You have nothing to gain by tormenting her. Let her go with Thor.”  
Angie’s dark laughter sent a shiver down Izzy’s spine. It curled around Loki like a blanket. “Oh but I do! I do, my darling. By menacing this child, I hurt you. And that makes her sheer fright all the more delicious.”  
“But why, Witch?”  
“Why? WHY?!” Izzy hunched in on herself but didn’t dare cower again. The venom from the snakes had begun to eat into the stone. God only knew what it would do to her flesh. Her laughter was dark and bitter and hurt Izzy’s ears.  
“Yes Angie, why? Why kill all those people? Why go to all this trouble?”  
“He asks why.” She laughter picked up again then built into a hysterical shriek.  
“Stop! Please stop!” Izzy covered her ears, screaming in pain. Blood trickled from beneath her palms. Humans were not meant to be in the presence of power such as this.  
“My happiness was stolen! My children banished and imprisoned because Boarson saw them and their father as a threat.”  
“You don’t think I feel your pain? I may not be the best father but the absence of my children is still felt. And our children are still alive! Have you forgotten about Sigyn sons?”  
“They do not concern me. Weak Asgardians, your blood diluted by that a weak-willed, spineless handmaiden.”  
“Sigyn was not so weak.”  
Angie’s laugh chilled even Loki. “Oh but she was. I would have let you shake the world down around the Allfather’s ears.” Angie stood and descended the stairs. “The child that concerns me is the one that grows within this waif.”  
“What?” Loki froze. Thor looked from his brother to the fear-stricken girl. He turned to Izabeth. “Izzy cannot be with child.”  
“Oh but she is.” Angie slipped her arm around Loki’s shoulder. “And think of all the delicious carnage this is wreaking on its unborn psyche. Not to mention the powder she inhales.”  
“Does she know?”  
“Afraid not.” Angie clicked her tongue right at Loki’s ear. “So early on, she could miscarry and be none the wiser to the child you and she created out of love.” Her emphasis on ‘love’ made Loki stiffen. “And there is my why, Loki. There is my concern.” She turned him in her arms to face her. Angie mewed at his milky eyes. “Oh my darling, what have you done to your beautiful eyes?”  
“A price I willingly paid to come here.”  
“But we were not hiding.”  
“I destroyed your wards.”  
Angie sighed. “You did. And for that I’m punishing your girl.”  
“I thought this was because I love her.”  
Angie laughed. “What, this?” She gestured to the mass of slithering, angry snakes throwing them at the woman he loved. “This is because you hurt me with that cast.” Angie shook her head as she turned them away from Izzy. “No, Loki, no, no, no, your punishment for loving her when you could not love me, could not love Sigyn, could not love any of the five children you fathered and one you mothered…your punishment will be to watch me rip the unborn from her womb and consume its flesh while she bleeds to death. Then I will let these eager snakes at her rotting corpse for them to eat and nest within.” Her voice dropped dangerously low. “And there’s nothing you or Odinson can do about it.”  
A wave of power skittered Thor backward through the archway then tumbled him out the door. The heavy oaken doors closed and barred themselves against him. He shouted and pummeled them with fists and hammer but couldn’t get inside.  
“Wait! Angie, wait.” He grabbed onto her hands. “I didn’t know about the child. And you said it yourself that she doesn’t know about it yet. I could have Thor take her someplace. He has humans friends who can make her disappear. I’ll never see her and the child again. Just do not punish her for my actions. They are wholly my own.”  
Angrboda chewed on her tears. “No, Loki, such an act of love with not be tolerated. You cannot punish love with love.” She yanked her hands free of his.  
Loki sighed. “I was afraid you might say that, Angie.” He grabbed the sides of her head and shoved the last bit of the working into her. Her howling shriek made Izzy scream in agony. Loki’s vision cleared, his eyes returning their vivid emerald green. The opaque film covered Angie’s eyes. She shoved him away and staggered backward, falling upon the steps. She clawed at her eyes, casting her own powerful runes on herself. But she had underestimated Loki’s power…and his love.  
“Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?” The answer, because he hated snakes and Izzy had an irrational fear of them. He steeled himself against the onslaught of fangs. Fangs that tore his shirt and trousers to shreds; fangs that bloodied his porcelain flesh with scratches and taken chunks; fangs that pumped him full of venom, turning his smooth pale flesh into bloated colors of inflammation, putrescence and rot, angry red, sick yellow and green and black and grey. His Jotun power and his magic kept the venom from killing him but it hurt none the less and screamed with step as he waded through the quivering mass.  
“Loki?” Her fear and worry touched his heart.  
“Yes, baby, onto my shoulders. Quickly.” She climbed onto his shoulders. Izzy wrapped her legs under his arms and locked her ankles behind his back, holding onto his shoulders with a white knuckle grip. She bit her lips together as she tried not to scream each time a snake struck at them, whether he was able to bat it away or if it was able to sink it’s fangs into his flesh.  
When he’d carried her far away from the snakes, he collapsed. She climbed off his shoulders. “Loki, baby, are you ok?” His radiant white flesh had taken on a greyish green tint. He swallowed, his vision blurring.  
“I will be fine. We must hurry before Angie breaks the cast.” He forced himself to his feet. Izzy let him lean on her, taking more of his weight than she was capable of but he needed her. He’d saved her at great cost and he needed her, so she did it. They staggered to the great doors. “Thor!”  
“Loki! Have you the girl?”  
“Yes.”  
“Stand back.” They stumbled back against the wall. Loki heard the whirling of the spinning Mjolnir before the great hammer struck the doors. They gave a shiver before exploding inward. Back in the cavernous room, Angrboda began to scream Loki’s name. Izzy whimpered.  
“Hold on, darling, we’re nearly free of her.”  
Thor took Loki’s weight. “Hang on tightly, girl.” She fisted her hands into his cape and Loki’s shirt, wrapping her legs tightly around the beefy blonde. The citadel trembled with Angrboda’s raging shrieks. Izzy looked down as they launched into the air at a dizzying speed, the forest and ground receding away from them.


	12. Epilogue

Izzy tucked the blankets around her peacefully sleeping son. She pressed a kiss to his forehead, suppressing a shudder from the natural cool of his skin. She brushed back the silken, black as sin hair from his forehead.  
The black cat wound around her feet, purring loudly, before it jumped onto the bed. It sat on its hind quarters, forepaws kneading the quilt. Its brilliant green eyes glowed up at her in the low light. She reached down and stroked him from crown to tail. He purred louder, wrapping his tail around her wrist.  
“I’ll leave you be. Try not to wake him.” She pressed her face into his fur. He nuzzled against her before she released him. “I’ll be in the den. “ She left the door cracked.  
The black cat watched the boy sleep. He looked around the room, taking in the trappings of a preschool age boy’s interests. He finally padded closer. He dropped his head to place his soft nose against the boy’s cheek. His sandpaper tongue flicked out, giving slow feline kisses. He began to purr. Frustration mounted as the boy continued to sleep soundly until the cat gave up and curled against his frail, thin chest. The boy’s arm wrapped around him and cuddled him to his chest.  
When the boy finally rolled over and released him, the black cat jumped down and slipped from the room. The feline eyes held intelligence far beyond that of an animal. It explored the house, pausing in Izzy’s room to roll upon the bed, marking her sheets with his scent and getting hers into his fur. He finally went to her in the den.  
She was more beautiful than he remembered. More so than when he hired her, more so than when he realized he loved her, quite possibly more than when she’d given birth to their son. With a flash of green light, Loki shed the countenance of the cat and stood in the room. He crossed to her and sat carefully on the couch. He squinted his eyes as she examined her, the flush of her cheeks from the empty glass of wine on the table, her moist and slightly parted pink lips.  
Having no desire to stop himself, he surged forward, taking those parted lips in a tender but passionate kiss. He cupped the side of her face. He felt her awake and respond. She sighed, slipping her arms around his shoulders as she returned the kiss. He pulled back far too soon for her liking.  
“I thought I’d never see you again.”  
“I told you I’d find you.” Her fingers played in his hair. His thumb caressed her cheek. He longed for this moment to stretch on forever.  
“How long do we have?”  
“Not long. I cannot chance Angie finding you or him through me.” She smiled sadly, tears springing to her eyes. “Do not cry, Izabeth.”  
“I’ve missed you. So much, Loki.”  
“I’ve missed you too, Izzy.” He nuzzled her nose with his. “Save your tears for when I am gone. For now, kiss me.” She did as he commanded. Kisses led to touches. And before Izzy could think, she had her hands buried in his hair, his open mouth pressed against her sternum as she rode him hard and slow. His cool hands burned the hot flesh of her back underneath her shirt. The sex was better than she remembered and she remembered it as fantastic.  
Loki cradled her head in the crook of his neck, his long elegant fingers combing through her blonde hair. “When will we see you again?”  
“When I’m sure it is safe.” Izzy sighed. She was grateful of his caution but gratitude only went so far when caution robbed you of the man you loved, of the father of your child. He gently pushed her back and away. “I must go.” She nodded, not trusting her voice.  
In a flash of green light, he was the black cat once again. He rubbed his face along her cheek, his rough tongue licking up her tears than had begun to fall. Then he was gone as quickly and neatly as he’d appeared. He would travel far enough away from them as the cat then he would return to Asgard, of which he was in no hurry. At least as the cat, he couldn’t feel the pain of loss, of separation and heartbreak as sharply. But as long as Izabeth and Leo were safe from Angrboda, he would suffer gladly. He would return to them again, someday.


End file.
